As an apparatus for continuously performing various processes such as film-forming processing, etching processing, and the like on a substrate, there is known a processing apparatus (so-called cluster tool apparatus) which is arranged, as shown in FIG. 1; to dispose a load lock chamber C for a substrate S and a plurality of processing chambers D1-D3, through gate valves E1-E4 in a manner to enclose a central transfer chamber B having disposed therein a transfer robot A; and to transfer by the transfer robot A the substrate S that has been fed into the load lock chamber C to each of the processing chambers D or to transfer the substrate S among each of the processing chambers D.
In this kind of processing apparatus there are disposed many moveable parts such as the transport robot A, as well as the gate valves E which are each provided with a driving means for isolating each of the processing chambers D from the transfer chamber B, a cold trap (not illustrated) of coolant circulation system, a vacuum pump P, and the like. These moveable parts form a processing environment for performing a predetermined processing on an object to be processed inclusive of transferring of the substrate. At this time, in order to perform the above-mentioned processing in a better way, it is required that these moveable parts always operate normally. Therefore, each of the moveable parts is provided with a detection means such as an optical sensor and the like so as to be able to monitor the operation thereof. This solution, however, becomes large in the number of constituting parts of the apparatus. In addition, the data to be controlled becomes vast in amount so that a high-performance control means becomes necessary, resulting in a higher cost.
It has so far been proposed to detect the abnormality of the processing apparatus by using a vibration detection means, such as an acceleration sensor, an acoustic emission (AE) sensor and the like that detect the vibrations of the apparatus. For example, in patent document 1 there is disclosed an art in which an acceleration sensor is disposed inside or outside the apparatus, and a stop control means is provided to output a stop signal to stop the apparatus based on the output of this detection means.
However, in the detection of abnormality by the vibration measurement of the prior art, out of the constituting parts of the processing apparatus, the waveforms of vibrations at the time of abnormality of the object whose abnormality detection is going to be performed are obtained in advance, and the abnormality detection is performed based thereon. Therefore, there is a problem in that the object to be measured becomes specific. Further, since a judgment of abnormality is made only when a predetermined threshold value has been exceeded, it is not suitable for controlling the deterioration conditions of moveable parts that are subject to deterioration depending on the frequency of use.